Letter: Vote yes to put fairness on map

Published 7:45 pm, Saturday, February 2, 2013

While the redistricting constitutional amendment that passed the Legislature is not perfect, it is a significant improvement over the current flawed process that produced gerrymandered lines in 2012.

The amendment creates a more independent commission that requires line-drawing consensus by the majority and minority parties, curbs gerrymandering and codifies the rights of minorities to elect candidates of their choice.

Ideally, commission members drawing the lines would not be chosen by legislators but from a pool of qualified members. Yet a commission that for the first time has no legislators, meaningfully includes third-party and minority-party members in the drawing of districts, and bars former elected representatives and their relatives, lobbyists and political party chairs is a real improvement over the status quo in which majority-party legislators unilaterally draw the lines.

That the amendment bars the drawing of districts "to discourage competition or for the purpose of favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candidates or political parties" will curb gerrymandering while allowing for "maintaining the cores of existing districts." "Maintaining the cores of existing districts" will not justify the previous, routine gerrymandering by the majority parties.

The Legislature also will not be able to draw the lines as if the reform did not happen. An accompanying statute to the amendment prohibits the Legislature from changing any district by more than 2 percent of the population from the commission's plan.

The redistricting amendment deserves voter approval because it will result in fairer maps that are the product of consensus and compromise, ensuring that one political party doesn't win at the expense of the other.